El Bola

Starring:El Bola
Studio: Film Movement
Product Type: DVD

Product Description

EL BOLA, winner of 4 Goya Awards in Spain including Best Picture, is the December selection in The Film Movement Series. Subscribers to Film Movement receive a socially important film to own on DVD each month. The film poignantly parallels the lives of a caring father unable to connect with his willful but son, and that of distant Pablo (El Bola) and his abusive father who is incapable of giving him the love he needs, replacing it with something far more sinister. One imprints his son in an improbably gentle manner with a tattoo stylus, the other brutally with his fists. Told alternately through both the childrens' and adults points of view, Achero Manass El Bola is a stirring narrative that lodges in the memory.

Customer Reviews:

Angels Around the World.......2007-06-21

"El Bola" is a powerful movie from Spain. In 2000, it was director Achero Manas' first full-length feature after having directed a handful of short film projects. It handles the powder keg issue of child abuse with realism. Juan Jose Ballesta plays Pablo, nicknamed "Pellet." At filming, I believe he was 12. Juan had played on Spanish TV, but this was his first feature. He has worked consistently in Spanish films in the seven years since. He breaks your heart with those eyes that reflect the joy, innocence and love of a child and contrasts with the utter fear for his life. The culminating incident where he spits in his father's face blows the lid off. We know what's coming and watch as the helpless mother flails about pathetically.

Pablo's best friend is Alfredo, played by Pablo Galan. Galan was chosen from 1,600 children who auditioned. He had no previous acting experience. He's a bit heavyset; & his Alfredo is an oddball & loner. Galan was well chosen. He moves effortlessly between the young adolescent alienation, to wild abandon as he crashes the amusement park rides, to sober contemplation as he sees the family friend dying of AIDS.

Beside Ballesta's Pablo, Alberto Jimenez makes the greatest impression as Jose, the father of best friend Pablo. Jose is a tattoo artist. We first view him as wild, tattooing a dragon on fat man's back. As his screen time increases, we see a father who listens to his family, treats his wife & children well and cares about them and his friends. Jose stands up for Pablo, taking risks on the boys' behalf. By the film's end, he is our hero. With six films shot in 2007, Jimenez has had a busy career in Spanish cinema since this film from 2000.

Our villain is Pablo's father Mariano, played by Manuel Moron. The Film Movement DVD explains that the character is sad because of the loss of his first son. However, no explanation suffices for the loveless home life this father creates. I found it interesting that the Film Movement DVD lists stage training and productions for Moron in Spain & Argentina. Moron plays this controlling parent perfectly; and we hate him for it.

Of the smaller roles, all characters are well directed and fill the film realistically. Ana Wagener, who to me looks a bit like Melissa Etheridge's Spanish sister, plays the social worker Laura who advises Alfredo's family on how to handle the situation. Maximo Jimenez plays Pablo's friend Cobeta, a good looking lad who plays a game of rushing onto the railroad tracks before an oncoming train to grab a bottle. Gloria Munoz plays Aurora, Pablo's helpless mother who cannot stop her husband's abuse.

The screenplay leaves an open-ended conclusion. The events have been so disturbing that perhaps we all hope for the best. We could either interpret that things will get better for Pablo or that the father will get away with his domestic abuse. Perhaps in this situation, no one can actually win. This is a powerful film that should be viewed by mature audiences. May our angels around the world help children from every culture who find themselves helpless and attacked.

Wish I could give more than 5 stars!.......2007-06-05

Brilliant, Heartbreaking, superb acting of the 2 kids and all the other members of the cast, Stunning, touching story and wonderful actors,this movie should be an Oscar awards winner. it's very well made, each and every character shows the psychological complexity of the human being, the kids think and act somethimes like adults and the adults like kids or animals, it lets you feel what a real family and a loving father is, but also lets you perceive and understand what Domestic violence,child abuse and sickness means in many countries and places around the world or in your own next door's neighbors.
Beautifully draws the real meaning of friendship, love and family values but also keeps you at the edge of the seat in pain and tears by seeing that abusive cruel sick father. Superb!

Moving.......2007-05-12

Moving story of a friendship between two boys, where one of them is being tortured by his own father. The topic is and unfortunately will be still up-to-date. Sad to realise the reality of such cruelty and traumas for entire life. Worth watching though!

Fathers and sons . . ........2006-09-19

This multi-award-winning film tackles the difficult subject of domestic abuse and in particular a father's abusive relationship with his twelve-year-old son. The nature of this abuse is revealed slowly, so that like any outsider, we don't see the full extent of it until we've already formed opinions about both characters. The film contrasts their relationship with that of the boy's new friend at school, whose father is a tattoo artist and seems on the surface to be more potentially troublesome as a parent. But as we watch him with his son, we see how is firmness is an expression of his caring and love for the boy. The boys' two homes represent mirror worlds with contrasting emotional dynamics.

The drama in the film emerges as the abusive father's treatment of his son becomes gradually apparent to his son's friend, and we become informed of the near inability of anyone outside the family to rescue him. There is no easy resolution to this dilemma, and we are left with a sense of urgency about this disturbing social problem. The performances of the two twelve-year-olds are wonderful, as they become friends, exploring the early stages of their growing independence. Shot in the streets of Madrid, the film has a gritty, gray urban ambiance, and key scenes are played out along a railway where commuter trains rush by and schoolboys play death-defying games across the tracks.

Painful and Incomplete.......2006-08-19

I'd give it five stars, but the extended graphic depiction of child abuse this film impresses and leaves upon you after it is over costs it a star. A film has the right to make its points, but when you feel so much pain for a character after the story is over, in my opinion it has crossed the line of entertainment. The kids are excellent actors, as are the adults. It is a very plausible storyline until you reach the very end, where you have do some figuring of your own as to how it suddenly turned out that way. In fact, I question if you could call the end the story's "resolution"; it could very easily be seen as another climax, the only resolution being in the viewer's mind.

El Bola / Pellet [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

Average customer rating:

El Bola / Pellet [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]
Director: Achero Mañas
Manufacturer: Buena Vista
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000FMJD7Y

Product Description

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), Spanish (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SYNOPSIS: El Bola, a 12 year old boy a.k.a. 'Pellet' is a 12 year old boy raised in a violent and sordid environment. Embarrassed by his family life, he avoids becoming close to classmates. The arrival of a new boy at school changes his attitude towards his classmates, and friendship. The heart of the story is the change in El Bola's life, at almost all levels, after befriending this new classmate. SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Scene Access, Making Of, Interactive Menu,

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